Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 7 - Chapter 4.7

 Rebellious tuning

All the men in gas masks bowed in perfect sync to Bruno Belmondo, who stood in the center of the stage. By now, it was patently clear who was in control.

“…I had a feeling you were behind this.”

When we’d realized Noel had been the one to send us that second wish—“I want you to protect the world’s wisdom”—we’d also realized it was possible that Bruno was the mastermind.

Basically, maybe Noel wasn’t asking us to keep Bruno from becoming a victim, but rather to keep him from doing harm. We just hadn’t wanted to believe it.

The hall was still buzzing over the entrance of this entirely unexpected mastermind. I was the only one who got to my feet.

The closest enemy took aim at me, but at Bruno’s signal, he lowered his weapon. Apparently the Information Broker was willing to talk with me.

“Bruno Belmondo. Who are you?”

There were no detectives here. It was my job to ask the questions.

“What are your ties to Another Eden? What are you hoping to accomplish by committing terrorism?”

The crow-mask and the gas-masks had to be residents of Another Eden. If Bruno Belmondo was leading them, who was he?

But I didn’t expect Bruno’s answer.

“We do not belong to Eden.”

He claimed that no one here had any connection to Another Eden.

“What? Don’t tell me you made the place up entirely.”

No, that couldn’t be. The Federation Government had said that Another Eden had been making contact with them since time immemorial. Siesta had mentioned hearing that story as well.

“Another Eden does exist. Somewhere in this world, or perhaps somewhere in space. On this occasion, we simply imitated them.”

“So you were just impersonating them? Why would you do that?”

“I believe we’ve already explained our objective to you, many times over.”

…Yeah, they had. They—or at least Bruno—wanted to learn the identity of something the Federation Government was hiding, then steal it.

“Is that why you approached the Lupwise family ten years ago? For their strong ties to the Federation Government?”

He’d adopted the five-year-old Noel because he’d foreseen that she would be a government official someday, and that this would bring him closer to the world’s secret.

“A solid deduction.” Bruno looked down at me from the stage, stroking his beard. Then his eyes went to Noel, who was sitting beside me. “I waited a long time for that girl to approach the core of the world. Three years ago, the time came. The head of the Lupwise family passed away suddenly, and his heir vanished. As I’d anticipated, the girl inherited the family’s seat in the Federation Government. However…” Bruno’s eyes grew disappointed. “After that, my plans went awry. She was only a makeshift successor, and she showed no sign of being allowed near the core. I waited two years, but that time was wasted.”

Noel hung her head. Her shoulders seemed to be trembling. “And so you gave up on me a year ago, Grandfather, and…”

No matter how little I wanted to, I knew what the rest of that sentence would be. Bruno’s hopes hadn’t played out, so he’d dissolved his relationship with Noel. If she’d never be in a position to learn the world’s secret, then he had no use for her.

“A year later, then, I decided to implement this plan. At the Ritual of Sacred Return, where many people near the world’s core would assemble, I would ask the identity and location of the world’s secret. However, no one here seems to know the answer, either.”

Bruno’s disappointed gaze traveled around the hall again. He’d gathered and threatened Federation Government personnel, former Tuners, and international VIPs, but in the end, no one had been able to give him what he wanted.

“It wasn’t entirely in vain, though. The masked dignitaries fled, using dolls as decoys. They do know the answer. Therefore, we will advance,” Bruno said, as if he were declaring war on the world.

“You’re going to find Ice Doll and the others? And you’re going to keep up the terrorism until you get what you want? It won’t work. Now that you’ve gone this far, the Federation Government is going to view you as an enemy of the world. The world won’t let Bruno Belmondo get away.”

At the very least, the Ace Detectives would capture him.

His ambition would never be realized.

“I don’t need to be the one who reaches the answer.” As Bruno spoke, he was gazing into the distance. “It’s enough if someone—anyone—does it. As long as the world remembers, that’s enough. Even if I fall here, the wave of rebellion has begun, and it won’t stop.”

Bruno was echoing the argument I’d made to the Federation Government. I’d told them that, while they sat on their thrones way back where it was safe, a spirit of rebellion was building. That the Inventor and the Revolutionary and the Hero were already on the verge of abandoning them.

“…I see. So Stephen’s group were all your comrades, too?”

They really had tricked me, in that other future. The thing in the crow mask, Stephen, and Bruno all wanted the same thing. Their attempt to steal the origin text and their attack on the Ritual of Sacred Return had both been part of a revolt against the organization and order of the Federation Government. But then… “What drove you that far? Why would you do all that to rebel against the Federation Government?”

I resented Ice Doll and the other members of the government, too. I could understand feeling intolerable anger toward them. However, Bruno’s claim had a different sort of heat to it.

“Is it because you want to know this secret they’ve got? This can’t be your thirst for information as the former Information Broker. What’s the point?”

He’d already retired from his position as the Information Broker. What was the secret he wanted to know badly enough to drag all these people into danger? What was Bruno Belmondo’s desire? What could he want so intensely that he’d become an enemy of the world, sacrificing everything—

“You’re still pretending you don’t know?”

Bruno’s reaction wasn’t what I’d expected.

He looked more angry than suspicious. It was as if he thought I was trying to misdirect him or give intentionally evasive answers.

“Why does no one know? Why doesn’t anyone remember? Why has the world forgotten these words? What other ‘secret of the world’ could there possibly be?”

Bruno’s eyes flew open, and his hand tightened on his gun.

“It’s what the Federation Government has kept hidden. What even I, the Information Broker, haven’t managed to reach. The world’s taboo—the Akashic records!”

Complete silence fell in the hall.

Everyone listened until Bruno stopped speaking, then considered his words.

The time it took for me to say anything felt like an eternity. That was probably inevitable, though.

“What the hell are the Akashic records?”

The term was genuinely unfamiliar to me. Noel also shook her head.

Technically, though, I did have a vague grasp of the concept.

If I recalled, it was the memory of the world itself, recorded since Earth—or possibly the universe—began. I couldn’t visualize it in any concrete way, though.

“You’re saying you did all this so you could find out what these Akashic records are?” I asked, watching Bruno’s face. I didn’t understand what he meant.

Bruno wasn’t disgusted. He wasn’t surprised. The emotion in his face was despair.

“Let me ask you again.” Eyes still wide, Bruno doubled down on his question. “The Tuners are the shields who defend the world. How many of them are there?”

“Eleven…right?”

“Then have you ever heard the term ‘the Singularity’?”

“…? Isn’t that some kind of math term?”

“I see. That’s enough.”

Bruno lowered his gun. He wasn’t looking at me anymore.

“This really is as far as this world goes.”

Then what were his keen eyes fixed on now? The question suddenly scared me.

“As you say, I’ll be punished soon. In that case, I’ll carry out my final mission here.”

After a short silence, Bruno’s eyes turned to me again. “The following is a warning.”

In the next instant, a new image flashed onto the screen.

The screen was split into sixteen sections. In each section, a world leader was being held at knife- or gunpoint by someone in a gas mask.

“This world is not peaceful. The crises are still very much with us. Even so, humanity persists in the naive belief that peace will continue. Therefore, I make this declaration to the entire human race.”

That’s right; he’d said this was a warning.

“I am about to tune this world, as Evil.”